This rare plant, an epiphyte native to New Guinea, is hard to sustain in captivity. It tends to grow on the face of rock cliffs. Its blooms are hairy and the color of dried blood. Its leaves droop down a meter or more, like hot tongues. Smell? According to the Tropical House curator in Melbourne, “If you mixed, say, two or three-day old rotting flesh with manure you would get pretty close.” We’d say that’s quite close enough.

We put the tongue orchid in the same tent as Titan Arum—the sideshow of the horticultural midway. Others might say our taste in flowers is mundane. Truly. We’ll take daisies, and leave tongue orchid, with its carrion scent, to the flies, gawkers and experts.